X

on beer-casks indicates beer which paid ten shillings duty, and
hence it came to mean beer of a given quality. Two or three crosses are
mere trade-marks, intended to convey the notion of twice or thrice as
strong as that which pays ten shillings duty.

X

A letter resembling “y” was the Anglo-Saxon character for th
(hard); hence etc., are sometimes made to stand for the, that, this.